General paralysis

Dementia paralytica or paresis. Amentia, dementia, and mania. The classification of insanity into these three types or forms, though once common, has of late given way to a more scientific nomenclature, based chiefly on the origin or cause of the disease iaf the particular patient and its clinical history.-These terms, however, are still occasionally en-, countered in medical jurisprudence, and the names of some of their subdivisions are in constant use. Amentia. A total lack of intelligence, reason, or mental capacity. Sometimes so used as to cover imbecility or dotage, or even as applicable to ali forms of insanity ; but properly restricted to a lack of mental capacity due to original defective organization of the brain (idiocy) or arrested cerebral development, aa distinguished from the degeneration of intellectual faculties which once were normal. Dementia. A form of insanity resulting' from degeneration or disorder of the brain (ideo-pathic or traumatic, but not congenital) and characterized by general mental weakness and decrepitude, forgetfulness, loss of coherence, and total inability to reason, but not accompanied by delusions or uncontrollable impulses. Pyott v. Pyott, 90 111. App. 221; Hall v. Unger, 2 Abb. U. S. 510, Fed. Cas. No. 5,949; Dennett v. Dennett, 44 N. H. 531, 84 Am. Dec. 97; People v. Lake, 2 Parker, Cr. R. (N. Y.) 218. By some writers dementia is classed as a terminal stage of various forms of insanity, and hence may follow mania, for example, as iis final condition. Among the sub-divisions of dementia should be noticed the following: Acute primary dementia is a form of temporary dementia, though often extreme in its intensity, and occurring in young people or adolescents, accompanied by general physical debility or exhaustion and induced by conditions likely to produce that state, as malnutrition, overwork, dissipation, or too rapid growth. Dementia par-ralytioa is a progressive form of insanity, beginning with slight degeneration of the physical, intellectual, and moral powers, and leading to complete loss of mentality, or imbecility, with general paralysis. Also called paresis, paretic dementia, or cirrhosis of the brain, or (popularly) "softening of the brain." Dementia præcox. A term applicable either to the early stages of dementia or to the dementia of adolescence, but more commonly applied to the latter. It is often (but not invariably) attributable to onanism or self-abuse, and is characterized by mental and moral stupidity, absence of any strong feeling of the impressions of life or interest in its events, blunting or obscuration of the moral sense, weakness of judgment, flightiness of thought, senseless laughter without mirth, automatic obedience, and apathetic despondency. (Kraepeiin.) Senile dementia Dementia occurring in persons of advanced age, and characterized by slowness and weakness of the mental processes and general physical degeneration, verging on or passing into imbecility, indicating the breaking down of the mental powers in advance of bodily decay. Hiett v. Shull, 36 W. Va. 563, 15 S. E. 146; Pyott v. Pyott. 191 111. 280, 61 N. E. 88; McDaniel v. McCoy, 68 Mich. 332, 36 N. W. 84; Hamon v. Hamon, 180 Mo. 685, 79 S. W. 422. Tonne dementia. Weakness of mind or feeble cerebral activity, approaching imbecility, resulting from continued administration or use of slow poisons or of the mere active poisons in repeated small doses, as in cases of lead poisoning and in some cases of addiction to such drugs as opium or alcohol. Mania. That form of insanity in which the patient is subject to hallucinations and illusions, accompanied by a high state 9f general mental excitement, sometimes amounting to fury. See Hall v. Unger, 2 Abb. U. S. 510, 11 Fed. Cas. 261; People v. Lake, 2 Parker Cr. R. (N. Y.) 218; Smith v. Smith, 47 Miss. 211; In re Gannon's Will, 2 Misc. Rep. 329, 2l N. Y. Supp. 960. In the case first above cited, the following description is given by Justice Field: "Mania is that form of insanity where the mental derangement is accompanied with more or less qf excitement. Sometimes the excitement amounts to a fury. The individual in such cases is subject to hallucinations and illusions. He is impressed with the reality of events which have never occurred, and of things which do not exist, and acts more or less in conformity with his belief in these particulars. The mania may be general, and affect all or most of the operations of the mind ; or it may be partial, and be confined to particular subjects. In the_ latter case it is generally termed 'monomania.' " In a more popular but less scientific sense, "mania" denotes a morbid or unnatural or excessive craving, issuing in impulses of such fixity and intensity that they cannot be resisted by the patient in the enfeebled state of the will and blurred moral concepts which accompany the disease. It is used in this sense in such compounds as "homicidal mania," "dipsomania," and the like

Defined under Insanity in Black's Law Dictionary.